Role of School Counselors and the Factors That Affect Their Practice in India
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Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation Volume 2 Issue 1 Cross-National Differences in School- Article 3 Based Counseling Practice January 2020 Role of School Counselors and the Factors that Affect their Practice in India Elizabeth Thomas Christ University, [email protected] Anjali M. Dey Christ University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/jscpe Part of the Counseling Commons, International and Comparative Education Commons, and the Student Counseling and Personnel Services Commons Recommended Citation Thomas, E., & Dey, A. M. (2020). Role of School Counselors and the Factors that Affect their Practice in India. Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation, 2(1), 22-28. https://doi.org/10.25774/ t4b6-9880 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation by an authorized editor of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FACTORS SHAPING SCHOOL COUNSELING DOI: 10.25774/t4b6-9880 Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy & Evaluation Role of School Counselors and the Factors that Affect their Practice in India Elizabeth Thomas and Anjali Miriam Dey Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, Karnataka, India Abstract main recommendation under the Kothari Commission under the National Policy on Education in 1964 was universal This article summarizes the responses of the sample of primary education along with the new pattern of education, Indian school-based counselors who contributed data to the focus on languages, and development of agricultural and international factor analysis that identified five dimensions industrial education (Cheney, Ruzzi, & Muralidharan, of practice. Forty-five complete surveys (i.e., the 2005). A few decades later, globalization, industrialization, International Survey of School Counselor’s Activities) were urbanization, and ready access to digital media brought new obtained from Indian school-based counselors most of opportunities in India but the system was not prepared to whom had a Master’s degree in counseling psychology. deal with the rapid changes that were brought with it Counseling Services, Advocacy and Systemic (Kashyap, 2004; Kodad & Kazi, 2014). These changes Improvement, Preventive Programs, and Educational and included an increase in the number of single-parent families, Career Planning were all considered important components divorce rates, issues of substance abuse, issues related to of role. Activities related to the Administrative Role were sexuality and reproductive health, especially among considered as inappropriate. Compared to the other adolescent age group and various mental health issues countries, the scores from India suggest that the school- (George & Thomas, 2013). Subsequently, an increase in the based counselors gave relatively high importance to prevalence of mental health disorders like depression Counseling Services, Advocacy and Systemic among school-going adolescents was reported (Deshwal & Improvement, Preventive Programs, and Administrative Gupta, 2017; Singh, Gupta, & Grover, 2017). Stigma Role. These results are interpreted with respect to important related to mental illness was seen as one of the principal contextual factors operating in India which influence the causes for the gap in the delivery of sufficient mental health work of counselors in school. care and treatment to the population (Venkatesh, Andrews, Mayya, Singh, & Parsekar, 2015). Since schools are a Keywords: school-based counseling, International Survey viable space to reach out to the children, the role and of School Counselors’ Activities, India responsibility of the school to provide school counseling services took focus in India (Thomas et al., 2017). School counseling is approached differently in different In a report by Harris (2013), India was listed along with countries and these differences can be due to various a number of other countries where school-based counseling factors. Martin, Lauterbach, and Carey (2015) had listed is established but was not considered mandatory. It was down some of these factors as cultural factors, national noted that counseling was provided only in secondary needs, societal movements, models of school counseling, schools, and the prevalence of school counseling in primary laws and educational policy, and characteristics of the sections was only in private schools. Absence or public education system. Research in the area of role and inaccessibility of supportive systems and mental health activities of school counselors has recently received services among adolescents can have a major impact on attention around the world and India has also started their overall well-being (Chandrashekarappa, recognizing it (Venkatesan & Shyam, 2015). Ramakrishnaiah, Ram, & Manjunath, 2016; Duggal & While the history of counseling can be dated back to the Bagasrawala, 2018). Even with growing research about the Guru-Shishya system in the Vedic period, counseling as a positive impact of school counseling, school counselors profession in schools is still in its infancy (Carson, Jain, & face various challenges in their workplace. School-based Ramirez, 2009; Deshwal & Gupta, 2017; Kodad & Kazi, counseling across the world shows great variability in terms 2014; Thomas, George, & Jain, 2017). During the Vedic of focus, role, training, and models (Harris, 2013). It should periods, education was accessible only to male upper caste also be noted that school counseling is in different stages of students (Thomas et al., 2017). With the British occupancy development in different parts of India and in some places in the country, a lot of the old systems of thinking and living the concept of school counseling is yet to be introduced changed and public education became crucial, civilizing (Rajan & Ngullie, 2017). In such circumstances, the factors institutions with the aim of producing moral and productive influencing school counseling should be looked at in its citizens (Cohn, 1996). Policies in education came only after context. The paper focuses on the different roles of school independence from the British rule. Recommendations counselors in India and the various factors that affect their implemented by the government focused on streamlining practice. education with a focus on academics. For example, the Method Thomas & Dey (2020), 22 FACTORS SHAPING SCHOOL COUNSELING Volume 2(1) Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy & Evaluation India, followed very closely by the United States (M = 3.5, Measure SD = 0.40) and Nigeria (M = 3.5, SD = 0.34). Only the United States (M = 3.5, SD = 0.42) scored slightly higher The International Survey of School Counselor’s Activities than India in Advocacy and Systemic Improvement, (ISSCA; Carey, Fan, He, & Jin, 2020) which is a 41-item followed very closely by Malta (M = 3.3, SD = 0.52). India scale. It has five dimensions of school-based counseling was among the countries which indicated higher preference practice that include: Counseling Services, Advocacy and for Preventive Programs along with the United States (M = Systemic Improvement, Preventive Programs, 3.4, SD = 0.45), Turkey (M = 3.4, SD = 0.42), and Nigeria Administrative Role, and Educational and Career Planning (M = 3.4, SD = 0.54). Nigeria (M = 3.2, SD = 0.5) gave the (Carey et al., 2020). highest rates for Administrator Role followed by India and other countries like South Korea (M = 2.4, SD = 0.7), China Participants (M = 2.4, SD = 0.5), and Kenya (M = 2.3, SD = 0.6). In the Educational and Career Planning, Kenya (M = 3.7, SD = Forty-seven surveys obtained from India included 41 female 0.50) and Nigeria (M = 0.5, SD = 3.7) rated it as more and six male participants. Most of the participants had a appropriate, followed by the United States (M = 3.5, SD = master’s degree in counseling psychology and their years of 0.58), South Korea (M = 3.3, SD = 0.59), and India. experience in their field ranged from two months to 20 But, when comparing the BART scores, India (M = -.00, years. Of the total data, few data were rejected as they were SD = 1.40) is among the few countries to score high for incomplete and 45 completed surveys were taken for the Counseling Services along with South Korea (M = .37, SD final analysis. The average number of years the counselors = .78), and Kenya (M = .22, SD = 1.16), where low scores reported to have worked is three and a half years. About were received among other countries like Venezuela (M = - 89% of the participants had a Master’s degree in Counseling 1.21, SD = 1.07), Costa Rica (M = -1.14, SD = 1.14), and Psychology. For the participants in India, the survey was China (M = -.93, SD = .96). In Advocacy and Systemic conducted in English. The data collected was stored in Improvement, India (M = .19, SD = .94) again secure files and no identifying information was stored. comparatively rated higher level of appropriateness along with Malta (M = .32, SD = .73), Costa Rica (M = .46, SD = Statistics .80), and the United States (M = .64, SD = .63), while countries like Nigeria (M = -.74, SD = 2.21) and Kenya (M Means and standard deviations were used to explain the = -.38, SD = .73) rated it as less appropriate. India (M = .64, scores in the five dimensions among the Indian data. Bartlett SD = .68) also rated Preventive Programs as more Factor Scores (BART) were also computed for each appropriate